02 August 2017

Tell a Good Story - Issue #3: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Spoiler Free Synopsis: In 1978 Abigail
Bullion has lost her mother and is being sent to live with her father,
Barnabas, in Rainbow Ridge, Arizona. The town has grown out of Barnabas’ gold
mine deep within the heart of Big Thunder Mountain. Abigail, or Abby, is a free
spirited young woman who has long to travel west and see what adventures it
offers. Barnabas, seeking to protect her, confines her to their manor house
until he can find a suitable boarding school to send her off to. This does not
sit well with our heroine who, along with her trusty horse Jaggers, sneaks away
to see just what is happening in Rainbow Ridge.

Meanwhile, the mining operation is on
the edge. Business is no longer booming, accidents continue to pile up, and
Barnabas’ lead foreman, Willikers, is convinced the miners just aren’t being
pushed hard enough. While a forthright miner named Chandler disagrees and urges
caution in angering the spirit of Big Thunder, Willikers wins out and the
mining operation is to push deeper into the mountain.

With Abby sneaking into the mine, bandits
rustling the gold, Barnabas trying to do what’s right for the town, the mine,
the miners, and his business, and Big Thunder awakening to intruders, we’ve
only begun this wildest ride in the wilderness.

Disney Source Material: Page one, panel
four features a goat gnawing on a stick of dynamite. If that doesn’t tell you
everything you need to know about the use of source material in Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad, then I don’t know what will! The story takes place in
Rainbow Ridge, a Frontierland location that predates Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad in Disneyland. Barnabas T. Bullion is a recent addition to the
attraction backstory in multiple iterations, and bears a striking resemblance
to the Imagineer, Tony Baxter. The Bullion residence, with its clapboard Victorian
motif, has more than a passing likeness to Disneyland Paris’ Phantom Manor.
Throw in dinosaur bones, color-rich caverns, Cumulus Isobar, bats, and a mining
train named I.M. Brave and it is hard not to draw straight connections between
the attractions and the story.

While the inspiration is clear, the fact
that multiple versions of the attraction, as well as Frontierlands themselves,
are merged together so effortlessly shows a lot of skill. While the story leans
heavily on the relatively new history of Big Thunder that includes Barnabas T.
Bullion, if anything this story only adds depth to the attraction itself. While
Tony Baxter has never wanted Bullion to be the villain of the Frontierland tale
he helped to create, writer Dennis Hopeless does a masterful job of threading
the needle on a character who is conflicted and occasionally makes poor
choices.

Marvel Storytelling: As we have just
mentioned above, Dennis Hopeless is our writer here, and he creates a world and
a whole host of characters that the reader is quickly invested in. There are a
ton of plot threads running between our characters, but none of them get
muddled and every resolution further progresses the story of Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad. Whether it is a father and daughter spat, bandits imbued
with a sense of purpose, or turning a mountain into a full-fledge character
with its own language, Hopeless does an excellent job of keeping the story
clean and making us care about what is happening.

Meanwhile, artists Tigh Walker and Felix
Ruiz share the duties of taking Hopeless’ words and fully crafting that world.
Walker does the heavy lifting of setting this western fantasy world down in
real places that feel tangible to the reader. I could almost feel the dust in
the saloon and the vast open wilderness, which could get away from an artist is
given is due respect, but also harness effectively. Walker’s characters are
unique, yet recognizable, and that only further ingratiates us to their
plights. With Ruiz taking over artist duties for Issue 3 and Guillermo Mogorron
finishing on Issues 4 and 5, there is plenty of room for artistic continuity to
be lost, but it is never a matter that needs to be addressed as the three do a
remarkable job of keeping the cohesion strong and our focus on the story.

As you move through the coloration of
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, from the dusty yellows and oranges of western vistas
to the violets and blue of mine life, you may get a sense of déjà vu. The
colorist on the comic is Jean-Francois Beaulieu, whose work we were introduced
to in The Haunted Mansion. He continues to impress here, especially in a
western environment where it would be easy to muddle some of the earth tones.

The story presented to us in Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad is complex, probably one of the more complex stories we’ve
come across in the Disney Kingdoms comic line, but it doesn’t feel that way.
Western comics are nothing new, and one of my favorites (and perhaps most
recognizable) has always been DC’s Weird Western Tales. Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad does its predecessors proud in terms of supernatural western yarns,
while also enhancing the world of Frontierland in all of Disney’s parks. This
isn’t a story that we know, a retelling of long-established park lore, but
there is enough of that world in Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to hook the
reader and then give them one heck of a ride.

Bonus Time: Talk about a gold mine! Yes,
we have the cover art and variant cover images here, included a completed piece
of art from a set of interlocking covers, but that is just scratching the
surface. There are also character studies from Tigh Walker alongside attraction
posters from Jim Michaelson, with Rudy Lore and Greg Paul. In the vein of
concept art we have pieces from Jim Heffron and Carline May, Joe Warren, Tony
Baxter, and Dan Goozee. There is also a considerable amount of art from Clem
Hall, including a gorgeous aerial vista of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad that
covers two pages. Last, but certainly not least, are a pair of letters from
Creative Adviser and Imagineer, Tony Baxter, and the Executive Production
Designer Vice President of Imagineering, Skip Lange. From Tony Baxter we are
treated to a tale of designing the first Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, with
particular attention paid to Marc Davis’ Western River and Thunder Mesa
project. Skip Lange’s letter takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the
construction of Big Thunder Mountains in parks all over the world.

Conclusion: Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad was my favorite attraction growing up, and when it comes to the Magic
Kingdom it is still the place, along with the rest of Frontierland, that has
the firmest grip on my heart. When the comic of Big Thunder Mountain was
announced I was ecstatic, but I was also very nervous. I have an ideal of what
that story should be, I’ve written my own stories, steeped in Frontierland
lore, many times over my life, and I wasn’t sure how this comic would hold up.
A western, blended with a ghost story, isn’t exactly new territory to venture
into, but that only makes the stakes all that higher. By not playing into the
trope of good guys wear white hats and bad guys wear black hats, by giving us
honest, flawed characters, and heaping on tons of fun and comedy Hopeless and
team have presented us with a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad tale that I am
happy to applaud and will definitely reread again.